Installing Windows with broken BIOS

[peroni]

Hey,

I wasn't sure whether to post this in the motherboards or Windows forums but I suppose it's more fitting here.

It's been a while since I set up a computer so I need some help here. I have an old Z77 MSI motherboard whose click BIOS is broken (I cannot move the mouse cursor and if I press a key to navigate it will just flick through all options and I can't open anything). I'd still like to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10, and ideally I'll get a new SSD for that. What are my options here?

Can I install from my old Win7 CD on a new SSD with the broken BIOS (and then upgrade to Windows 10)?

How do I go about removing my current Windows 7 installation from the current SSD? If I do it before installing the new SSD I'm worried the new install won't work and I'm unable to come back to the old installation. If I try to do it later I'm not sure it will work - after switching to my current SSD, I was unable to remove the windows installation from my old hard drive because I wasn't authorised to (even though I'm logged in as admin and owner and none of the steps suggested in various forums worked).

Is there any way to get into the normal BIOS, avoiding this broken click BIOS? Do I not even need BIOS to install Windows 7 and later 10? Should I just back up my current SSD and install Windows on the new one (if this is possible) and format the current one?

 

[Colif]

what model motherboard is it exactly? You might be able to reflash the bios so its not broken

Do you have a win 10 licence now? You shouldn't need to reinstall win 7 and then go to 10 as board isn't that old that windows won't have drivers for it.

Click bios IS the normal bios on your motherboard, there is no other choice.
You may not need access to it to install 10, it sort of depends on the current boot order. If you have USB or DVD as 1st choice before the boot drive, then PC should let you boot from them without needing to get into bios... otherwise you do need the bios.

I would keep the current SSD as is until you know win 10 will boot off new install and then you can format it. back it up now if you want data off it.

Once bios works, what you should do is
1)remove all drives and only have new SSD in PC
2) install win 10 on it. and restart PC a few times so you know it boots
3) put old ssd into PC and make sure the boot order doesn't include it
4) boot into windows and follow these steps
a) go to settings/update & security/recovery
b) under advanced startup, choose restart now button
c) Go to troubleshoot
d)go to advanced
e)choose Command Prompt
type diskpart and press enter
type list disk and press enter
this shows all drives available, DVD/USB and hdd, make note of old ssd number (make sure not to choose C drive)
type Select disk X - where X is the number of the ssd you want to wipe, change X to that number and press enter
once the drive you want to install on is chosen, type Clean
f) type exit to get out of diskpart
restart PC. You now have a blank ssd

 

[peroni]

Thank you for your advice! My motherboard is MSI Z77A-G45.

I'm not sure I understand the second sentence. I do not have a Windows 10 licence but I read that this offer Windows had to upgrade 7 to 10 can still be taken advantage of (or just use a Windows 7 key to activate 10).

 

[Colif]

i must have missed this one, see if any of this helps - https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=293643.0